I’ve always wanted to build a giant match. In this project I set out to build the worlds largest fully strikeable match that a normal person can pick up easily, and strike to ignite. I did find other matches on YouTube but they were either so big they couldn’t be lifted, didn’t light very well, or were made from rocket candy, making them dangerous and not able to be lit without a flame, which seems like cheating to me. This is my build…

What sorcery is this? You can make a homemade metal Thor’s hammer and take it back to your chambers for less than 100 gold coins? Yup. I was asked to build this by my subscribers, and I gave it some real thought because I didn’t just want something to look at. I wanted something epic, a talking point, something with a use, but still buildable and relatively cheap and safe if you wanted a cheeky project. Here’s what I came up with…

Apart from being a talking point for any self respecting man cave, this build could make a fabulous door stop or centerpiece for workshops or Gyms. This is a piece of manly manliness that is definitely something unique.
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Holy crap, this miniature spear build was good. I have to be honest, I knew I could make something a bit tasty, but the end result was so good I couldn’t believe it. This is possibly the most fun I have had to date with a build for you guys on my channel, they are just so much fun to build and fire. You know the end result is good when even your mum says wow, just remember it’s not a toy.

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Welcome to the winter warmer build, which is basically a small portable campfire in a tin can. My Dad built these as a young boy just for fun, and although he knows them as a ‘winter warmer’, they used to build them anytime of year. In fact they work best, and look best, in the summer because of the dry wood available. BUT, an obvious word of caution, be extremely careful if considering making one of these, as stray embers can cause fires. So please use common sense and stay away from anything flammable, public parks, woods, forests e.t.c.

Campfire in a can

What makes a winter warmer unique, is the wire handle for spinning or swinging it. This means if you drill some air vents and swing it in a circular motion you can build up much higher temperatures than a stationary ground fire, because you force feed it oxygen through the ventilation holes. In Autumn this means wood that may be slightly damp can be force dried out with the hotter temperatures generated.

In this project I show you how I made an easy colored pull ring smoke bomb. The key to this build was to make the most simple and reliable pull ring ignitor possible, and it doesn’t get much easier than two matches, an elastic band, and an off-cut of striker from the matchbox. It was also very quick and cheap.

How to make a coloured smoke bomb

I found by far the easiest, safest, and fastest way is to buy them already made. I searched the internet, eBay, and Amazon and came up with a couple of good options. In the UK I found Party Packs to be the cheapest. A simple search on their website for ‘smoke bomb’ turned up the results. On Amazon UK I found these under the phrase smoke pellet. In the USA a search on eBay for ‘smoke bomb’ or ‘smoke bomb red’, turns up something similar.

These Pokémon Pokeballs were very quick to build. Based on simple 80mm clear decorative plastic balls, it’s just a matter of a bit of cutting, drilling and painting. But as a Brainfoo project we couldn’t just leave it there could we. Oh no. Inspiration hit me playing Pokemon Go, if we combined a smoke pellet or smoke bomb with a pokeball, we create a real life Pokeball with incense…

Real life Pokeball

If you know anyone who likes Pokemon these make a great gift, or a container for a gift like money, sort of a gift within a gift. This makes them a great idea for birthdays or Christmas, where you can hang them on a Christmas tree as themed decorative baubles. The best paint I could find was simple Acrylic paint, I had no problems, but some of the cheaper brands may take longer to dry.
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This build is for my subscribers that not only wanted to have a cheaper build process, but easier parts to buy if you live across the pond in the States. This time I have used a steel saucer as a mold, and again it can be used over and over again to make as many shields as you like.

Steel saucer mold

The main change this time is the use of a ‘Flexible flyer’ steel sled saucer as a mold. While you can’t go full size (2½ feet) with this saucer it’s still a very nice 2 foot wide, ideal unless you are 6’5″ and 18 stones. This of course keeps the other materials like fiberglass resin and fiberglass mat usage down as well.
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Cap’s Shield destruction

So I got asked a lot of questions about my first Captain America shield build, now called the Mark 1, and thinking about it I was dumb not to test it. But as it turned out a lot of my American chums from across the pond had trouble sourcing satellite dishes anyway, so it was a good opportunity to build a mark 2, and kick the bejesus out of it. Here’s the result.
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This bird whistle or bird caller is just so simple and fast to make it’s crazy. But what’s even better is the fun I had learning to play it, it was a bit like being a kid again and learning a new skill for the first time. Some of the silly faces and strangled noises during the 5 minutes it took to master it gave us all a laugh. So let’s have a look at how to make a bird whistle or animal call.

How to make a bird whistle or animal call

The parts you need are simple, some foam shapes (child friendly), a latex glove, and some super glue. The assembly instructions are in the video below.

I know in various parts of the world true strike anywhere matches can be hard, or near impossible to get hold of. So in this project I wanted to show you how to make the ultimate light anywhere match. As always I put in a lot of groundwork and testing and I hope you like the results, maybe you can contribute if you have good results with a particular brand of matches or ring caps on my facebook page and share the knowledge. The following information tells you how to do this project, it doesn’t mean you should though.

How to make a strike anywhere match

To build one of these highly volatile extreme light anywhere matches you only really need two components. A match of your choice, and some simple ring caps, like the ones used in a child’s toy gun. I tried a few different build techniques and found this one gave the most reliable results.

The first step is to carefully remove the paper from the open end of the ring cap and squeeze the powder out onto a tray. For each extreme match you will require enough powder to roughly fill a ¼ of an empty cap. So if your caps do not have this much in them you may need to remove the powder from another ring cap. Squeeze gently. I recommend pliers of some sort in case the cap goes off and burns your fingers. Never ever empty more that one ring caps worth of powder at a time, in case of an explosion – The powder is friction, impact, and flame sensitive, so safety glasses should be worn.

Dip the very tip of your chosen match into some water twice and deposit both drips of water into the powder and stir until mixed into a slurry. Put this slurry onto the tip of a gloved finger and roll the match in it, then try and create separate lumps on the surface of the match head. I say use gloves because we cannot be 100% sure what is in the matches or the ring cap powder. (I don’t on the video because I cannot operate cameras with gloved hands)

Support the head of the match while it drys, and place it somewhere safe away from heat, possible knocks and anything flammable. When dry it will be volatile.